There is no one at reception when I arrive at the hotel in a small town about 50km from Dublin, so I go to the bar and, as instructed, ask for the duty manager. “Miša, do you know where James is?” the young waiter calls to a passing colleague – in Slovak.
I had been interviewed online for the hotel cleaning job I applied for through an agency back in my home country, the Czech Republic. Did I mind that the hotel was in a secluded location with nothing to do in the evening, they’d asked me in the interview. I’d said no, that I like solitude. Now I am being shown around the hotel and the kitchen, where I meet the cook and two other guys – all of them Slovaks. Just as I was surrounded by Poles while on the farm in Germany, here I feel I could be in Slovakia. The cook, taking a break, tells me that it is his last day. I ask if he is leaving because of the low pay. He breathes in slowly and says that he’s leaving because of the stress.
